​For several years, Ezra Cagwe has toiled passionately and has unearthed new talent as development officer of the Western Province Cricket Association to increase the pool of quality players from which age-group teams for the province have been selected.

On Monday (2nd October) and Tuesday (3rd October), he and 16 other coaches closely followed the performance of U16 and U19 girls in 64 T20 matches played during a Township girls’ festival in Langa, Khayelitsha and Tygerberg.​Their first objective was to identify potential stars for the Western Province trials in March 2018 at Pinelands High School.

The stand-out players will soon be put through their paces at training sessions at the Langa Cricket Club on Fridays under the guidance of the experienced Cagwe. “I am very excited about the players we spotted,” he remarked.

The process of enlarging the pool of players and the participation of a bigger number of young players, will boost Western Province women’s cricket over the next decade, Cagwe added.

Cobus Roodt, the Western Province women’s coach, agreed with his colleague. “This will bolster Western Province women’s cricket and we can possibly entrench our dominance for the next eight to ten years.

“I am so excited about the process (in which Cagwe and Camilla Adams have been instrumental). I watched the U16 Western Province Invitational team and other teams on Monday and Tuesday. Every year, new young players are advancing and evolving.

“On Monday and Tuesday, the U16 women dominated. And what was so amazing is that half of those girls who batted were still at U13 age. They were able to amass scores of 230 and 160 in T20 matches.

“The bigger pool of cricketers and the process of improving their skills are advantageous to girls and women’s cricket in the region,” he added.

Western Province has been in dominant form the past five years, winning nine out of 11 trophies and losing only five matches while drubbing opponents at will, despite the fact that they often lost senior stars to international action.

Clinton du Preez, cricket services manager of the WPCA, said: “Our direct focus on girls cricket, has been ongoing. We supported the festival initiative which was intended to grow our base and identify the talent and move them into the high performance program under the leadership of our provincial coaches.

“The growth of this festival has allowed us to identify the special talent at a young age, with the vision to sustain our successful women’s program.

“This year, we will be sending an U13 girls and U16 girls to the regional festivals in Pretoria and Johannesburg, together with the U19 girls, who will be traveling to Port Elizabeth," Du Preez said.